


Babylon

by Mierke



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-29
Updated: 2016-06-29
Packaged: 2018-07-19 01:00:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7338199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mierke/pseuds/Mierke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A year in the life of Babylon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Babylon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thinlizzy2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thinlizzy2/gifts).



_March 2013_

Gina swayed a little on her feet, not entirely sure whether it was the alcohol or the giddiness that made her so unstable. Or maybe it was the nausea, who could tell? 

The only thing she was sure of was that Rosa would lead her to the cure, or maybe she would be the cure, one of the two. She was following the sound of her footsteps; oh, she had tried to follow Rosa by actually watching where she was going, but the image of that beautiful woman leading her some place was both distracting and a little blurry. 

Rosa led her down, down, down, and Gina vaguely realised that maybe she should at least be a little wary. But she hadn't come this far by listening to the quite reasonable but never all that loud voice in her head, and so she ignored it. Besides, she was in a police station, and where would a civilian be safer than in a police station? 

As Rosa seemed to move an entire wall with her mind (or maybe she'd used her arms; Gina couldn't tell, she was far too busy trying not to look at Rosa) and explained what she was inviting her in to, Gina felt herself falling and falling deep. She had always known she'd liked Rosa, of course, but she hadn't quite recognised the goddess she was working with. Anyone who could do this, though, who could find a captain's bathroom and transform it into a sanctuary for the weary and needy, well, they had to have some godly powers. 

***

_April 2013_

"We need a name," Gina announced. 

Somehow they had ended up in the secret bathroom again. She wasn't quite sure how it had happened, just that one moment she had been talking with Jake upstairs, and the next she and Rosa were both down here.

"We have names," Rosa said, and Gina laughed. 

"The _bathroom_ needs a name," she said. "Our sanctuary, our haven, our..."

She turned to Rosa, her eyes wide.

"Babylon," she all but breathed, and let out a squeal when Rosa didn't even roll her eyes. "You love it!"

Rosa didn't protest, which Gina took as a sign that she was right.

***

_May 2013_

Gina added a little splash of pink every time she went to Babylon.

It wasn't even deliberate at first. A bottle of nail polish called "Stones n roses". Towels that were so soft you just wanted to lie down on them. A rose confetti soap dispenser which she had nicked from her crazy neighbour and then hadn't known what to do with. Rosa had smashed that one within a week. 

After that, it became a treasure hunt for Gina. Everything she could think of that would fit the rose theme she brought with her, the more garish the better. 

She was very deliberately not thinking about why she did any of it.

But she did notice that Rosa had brought in a tiny unicorn, which she chose to interpret as Rosa speak for "Me too."

***

_June 2013_

"Gina," Rosa said one day, and Gina looked up from the magazine she had been reading. It was tough to drag her attention away from Beyoncé's latest red carpet outfit, but for Rosa she could manage.

"You're different," Rosa said, and Gina laughed.

"Don't I know it," she practically preened, but Rosa didn't laugh. 

"I mean it," she stressed. "I feel comfortable around you. I never feel comfortable with anyone. It's weird."

"That's because we're soul mates," Gina said, and she herself was amazed by how matter of fact she sounded. She had been working so hard on not thinking about it she had totally missed the moment she had come to this conclusion. 

"That makes sense," Rosa replied, and went back to sharpening her knife.

***

_July 2013_

Rosa had started smiling lately. Not a lot, and most often not where anyone could see it. But Gina noticed; no matter how everybody thought her attention was exclusively on her phone (she was beating her high score on Cwazy Cupcakes _to a pulp_ ), she had always had eyes in the back of her head. And on top of her head. Or maybe her upper arms? She wasn't entirely sure where they were located, but she did know that she saw everything. 

Including Rosa smiling.

At first it had been disconcerting. Rosa Diaz didn't smile, everybody knew that. But after she applied her vast detective skills (seriously, she was way better than any of the so-called professionals in the precinct), she realised an important thing. 

Rosa smiled _because of Gina_. 

"I make you smile," she gloated the day after her epiphany, and ducked away before the file Rosa tried to hit her with could connect. She could almost feel the sparkles dancing over her skin at the idea that she made Rosa _feel_ so much that she couldn't even hide it. 

"You do," Rosa groused. "It's disconcerting."

"I know!" Gina said happily, and she made a little pirouette. "It will freak out everybody once they catch on."

Rosa's eyes lit up at that.

***

_August 2013_

"Rosa, Judie; Judie, Rosa."

Gina was nervous. More nervous than she'd expected to be, but how could she not? She wasn't even entirely sure Rosa would be on board. They hadn't really talked about it, even if for her it had been the obvious road to take. 

"There's someone in our bathroom," Rosa said to Gina, completely ignoring Judie for now. 

"Hello, there," Darlene piped up, and Gina cringed for just a second. But she wasn't a warrior woman for nothing, and she straightened her back.

"Rosa," she said, following Rosa's lead and completely ignoring the two other women for the moment. "We are gathered here today-"

"That's my line!" Judie interrupted, but Gina waved her away as if she were an annoying insect.

"-to celebrate our love and our commitment. It was in this very bathroom that we met, not physically, but spiritually, that we realised our souls had bonded together long before we had first laid eyes on each other and that we made love for the first time."

"Go on," Rosa said. To the untrained eye, she might have appeared disinterested, but Gina's eye was far from untrained. She hid the sigh of relief that threatened to escape, and bent down on one knee.

"Rosa Emily Diaz," she said. "I have brought in an officiant" - she vaguely waved at Judie - "and a witness" - her mother waved at Rosa - "to seal this union. Will you marry me?"

Rosa didn't squeal, and she didn't cry. But her smile was so bright that Gina was almost afraid she'd set Babylon on fire. 

"Yes."

***

_September 2013_

"New captain," Rosa said.

"Yup," Gina replied, accentuating the P while she painted her nails.

"Should we tell him?"

"Oh, he knows."

The bottle of nail polish was snatched away before Gina could dip her brush in it again. 

"It will go d-" she stared to protest, but when she saw how Rosa looked at her, she swallowed back her words. It had been a long time since the detective had looked at her like that; she much preferred those angry glares to be directed at someone else. Preferably Charles, who still hadn't understood that Rosa was hers and hers alone.

"Why did you tell him?"

The words were slow and deliberate, and Gina cringed back a little more. 

"I didn't!" she said. "You didn't really think a guy like Holt would take over a precinct without first diving into every one of its people's files, did you? And while we have never mentioned it around the station, we did get legally married and our licence was filed. The City of New York knows we are married and thus does our captain."

Rosa was silent for a moment, then very carefully put the bottle of nail polish back. Gina hurriedly returned the brush to its rightful place, sending up a silent plea that the polish was still usable. 

"He won't tell," she said, and Rosa nodded.

"He's smart," she replied. "Private."

"Exactly," Gina said, and she went back to inspecting the nails she had already done, ignoring the feeling in her gut that she might one day want to open up this secret - and Rosa might not.

***

_October 2013_

"Junior Police Program, huh?" Rosa said, and Gina shrugged it off.

"You know, the ushe," she said. "Divorced parents, skipping class, Jake."

"Jake?" Rosa asked.

"Yeah, you know," Gina said. "Bad friends. Anyway, I had this teacher who thought the Junior Police Program for at-risk youth would be helpful. Jake thought it was a hoot. I laughed so hard when he was the one to eventually become a cop."

Rosa was silent for a while; after the time they'd been together, Gina had learned to differentiate between Rosa's silences. There was comfortable silence, and I-don't-want-to-talk silence, and this-is-all-too-ridiculous-I-pretend-I'm-not-here silence. This, however, was thinking silence, the silence that most often ended in Rosa asking her some question that nobody had ever thought to ask before. 

"Why didn't you join Jake at the Police Academy?"

"Me, a cop?" Gina said, her laughter echoing through Babylon. "Too much work."

Rosa didn't respond, but kept looking at Gina. 

"All right!" Gina said. "I didn't pass the psych eval, okay? I even got the college credit I needed, I worked my ass off for all the physicals, and then this stupid shrink told me he wasn't sure I should be a cop. As if he'd know anything about it, he's a psychologist. Urgh. So I got up and left, and started working in a sunglass kiosk. Now I get to keep you guys in line, _and_ I'm safe from criminals. Best job ever."

"You'd have been a great detective," Rosa said, and Gina smiled.

"Damn right I would have been."

***

_November 2013_

"I could become captain," Rosa said, and Gina dropped her eyeliner in the sink.

"What?" she said, turning around to face her wife. 

"They've offered me the job in Ropesburg."

Gina sat down, needing the stability of the ground to help her get through this conversation.

"You're leaving?" she asked, a little afraid of the answer but needing to hear it nonetheless. She was already browsing through opportunities in her head; after all, if someone could become a police captain in Ropesburg, anyone as awesome as her would have no trouble finding a job. 

"No way," Rosa said, and Gina let out the breath she'd been inadvertently holding. "It's in New Jersey. The place is dead."

Gina let it sink in for a bit, then realised something.

"If you'd already decided you weren't going, why did you tell me?" she asked. 

"Married people share things," Rosa shrugged, and Gina started grinning. 

"You loooooooooove me," she said, and Rosa nodded as if it was a given.

"I do."

***

_December 2013_

"What are you doing here? You're not working tonight."

Gina hung the last part of the Christmas decorations, and turned around to face the door.

"Neither are you," she pointed out, and Rosa shrugged.

"I felt like celebrating," she said, and when Gina didn't immediately respond, she added: "With you."

"Awwwww!" Gina smiled, and pointed around Babylon. "I've got some fake snow, a few elves, a little Santa Clause, a couple of presents that you may open, or if you don't want to, I will gladly keep myself, and, of course, mistletoe."

She stood directly underneath the green strands, and her smile grew even wider as Rosa joined her underneath it. She pulled her wife closer to her and pressed a kiss to her lips.

"Merry Christmas," she said, as her hands found their way underneath Rosa's T-shirt.

Then for a long time, nobody said anything.

***

_January 2014_

"We should tell people."

Gina poked her head out from underneath the blanket she'd been huddled under. She didn't feel entirely safe, yet, not even in Babylon. Which was ridiculous, she knew, but her actual home had been vandalised, so what was to keep that from happening to her home-away-from-home?

"I did!" she said. "And you couldn't find the guy."

"I don't mean the break-in," Rosa replied. "I mean about us."

Gina blinked a couple of times, not entirely sure she'd heard it right.

"You want to tell people that we are married?" she repeated, needing to be absolutely sure about what she was hearing.

"Yes."

Rosa sounded so sure about it.

"But... why? You never want to tell people anything!"

Rosa sighed, then came to sit a little closer to Gina. 

"When we investigated your B&E, and I couldn't give you any comfort, that hurt," she said. "I had to pretend I didn't care. I have never had to pretend before. I just didn't care. But now?"

She took a deep breath.

"Not only do I care, I _want_ to care. And I want to show it."

Gina smiled, laying her hand on Rosa's.

"Let's turn it into a game," she said. "We'll up our closeness, I'll drink your coffee, you'll smile at me. Let's see how good of detectives our colleagues are."

"You have been drinking my coffee for months," Rosa pointed out, and Gina laughed.

"Right, my bad! And they still haven't figured it out? We really do work with buffoons."

***

_February 2014_

"Last night was amazing," Gina gushed. "I can't believe Amy keeps talking about what a disaster it was."

Rosa smiled.

"You were amazing," she countered. "It had nothing to do with the party."

"I was, wasn't I? All those men, just hanging on my every word..."

She trailed off, lost in the memories of last night. It truly had been one of the best nights of her life, though that was at least partly due to the fact that she had been able to feel Rosa's love for her from all the way across the room. It had been so scalding hot that she didn’t understand how nobody else had felt it.

"I made you laugh," she said, and Rosa patted her knee.

"You were exquisite."

***

_March 2014_

"You would betray Babylon?!"

Gina was yelling for the entire precinct to hear, but she couldn't be bothered to keep her voice down. If their secret place wouldn't be theirs anymore, she sure as hell would make sure it wouldn't be secret either. Why would Rosa do this to her?

"Boyle needs it," Rosa said, not even bothering to raise her voice, as if the whole conversation didn't matter to her.

"We need it!" Gina countered. 

"We needed it," Rosa said, "but right now, Boyle needs it more than we need to keep it a secret."

Gina gasped for breath, not believing what she was hearing.

"We got married in that place, how could you just give it away?!"

"Wait, what?"

They turned around to face the new voice, and saw Jake standing in the opening on the break room, his jaw hanging wide open, a tub of popcorn in his hand as if he'd been listening to their argument for a while. Behind him, they could see Boyle and Amy pretending to not hang around and listen in. They rolled their eyes at the guys, and turned back to face each other again. 

"See what you made me do!" Gina was nearing hysterics now, terrified that Rosa would pull back and announce this whole thing to be a huge practical joke now it was known to the entire precinct.

"This is what I wanted, Gina," Rosa said. "We..."

"You wanted us to fight?" she asked incredulously. "What, you figured seven months was long enough to be married to me?"

"Seven months?" Jake choked from somewhere behind them, but they both ignored him.

"Gina," Rosa said again, raising her voice for the first time. Gina swallowed back the response that was lodged in her throat, and forced herself to listen.

"We talked about opening up the secret, remember? I was going to tell Boyle about Babylon, and then I was going to ask you to move in with me. And then we would announce it to the precinct, together. Because obviously they weren't going to figure it out for themselves."

Gina sat down - she was nowhere near the couch to sit down on, so she just sat down on the floor, needing the stability of something to lean upon.

"You're not breaking up with me?"

She didn't think she'd ever been this uncertain about anything in her entire life, and she did not like the feeling.

"No, you idiot," Rosa replied. "I love you!"

"Go on and kiss the girl!" Boyle cheered from the doorway, and Gina figured this Little Mermaid encouragement was probably the best she'd ever heard. She got up from the ground and stepped closer to Rosa, who stepped closer to her, and before she knew it, they were kissing for the entire precinct to see.

Boyle cheered, and Jake seemed unsure whether to opt for gagging or cheering himself, and Amy might have given a little whoop. 

It was Holt who broke them apart in the end, with an: "I'm glad you two chose to share your story with us. Now get back to work."

The detectives went back to their stations, Amy first, with Jake the last to leave the doorway. Gina smiled at Rosa, and leaned in for one last kiss before going back to her desk.

"Thank you," she said.

"Move in with me?" Rosa asked, and Gina pulled her in even closer.

"I thought you'd never ask."


End file.
